So where the hell is he?

By Robert Wainwright

THE man who oversaw the controversial but successful "So where the bloody hell are you?" tourism campaign has ended up a victim of his own refrain.

Scott Morrison, the managing director of Tourism Australia, has lost his $350,000-a-year job after what insiders describe as a bitter falling-out with the federal Tourism Minister, Fran Bailey.

Mr Morrison's departure will be formalised at a board meeting in the next week, ending the persistent tension between the tourism boss and Ms Bailey since his appointment in November 2004.

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Others link his demise to a plan to end the tourism body's status as an independent statutory authority and put it firmly under the control of the minister and the Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources.

The chairman of Tourism Australia, the former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer, last night confirmed Mr Morrison's departure but would not comment on the reasons.

Instead he praised Mr Morrison's performance: "I acknowledge the dedicated contributions Scott Morrison has made to Tourism Australia in particular with the development and launch of the new international marketing campaign 'So Where the Bloody Hell Are You?'. I have no further comment at this time."

Ms Bailey insisted she had "nothing further" to add to Mr Fischer's statement, while Mr Morrison would not return calls.

In 2003, the Government completed a report on public sector governance which recommends that public agencies without a business function be brought back within executive management.

The Uhrig review is now considering whether Tourism Australia, with a $140 million-a-year budget to promote Australia internationally, be effectively handed over to the public service. The review was supposed to have been completed by the end of June but has been delayed

until at least next month. This has led to concerns that Ms Bailey is backing the scrapping of the private sector-dominated board in favour of an appointed advisory panel. If so, she would be at loggerheads with Mr Morrison as well as the tourism industry, which argues that putting public servants in charge would harm a $73 billion market.

Mr Morrison's resistance to the plan is believed to be a key reason behind the messy exit.

It is understood the relationship between the two has been deteriorating for some months, with Ms Bailey privately accusing Mr Morrison of being obstructionist and issuing press releases without seeking clearance from her office.

The Prime Minister, John Howard, has also been drawn into the row, and backed Ms Bailey: "He only had one option when asked to choose between a managing director and one of his own ministers," a source said.

The bad blood between the pair goes back to Mr Morrison's five years as state director of the Liberal Party, when he was forced to intervene in a stoush between Liberal backbenchers and Ms Bailey, who was then parliamentary secretary for defence.

A source close to Tourism Australia commented: "It was obvious from early on that it was one of those relationships which did not gel."

Whatever the reason, it came just as Tourism Australia was trying to exploit the gains of its controversial and highly successful campaign, starring the Cronulla model Laura Bingle and voted by the industry as one of the top 30 Australian commercials of all time. "There's been a lot of momentum generated by the campaign and I hope this doesn't have an impact," a tourism source said.